Employee-Owned Wisconsin Podcast Episode #2: Inside Findorff's ESOP

WICEO’s Employee-Owned Wisconsin Podcast explores employee ownership through the stories, insights, and experiences of business owners, employee-owners, advisors, and leaders helping grow the movement across Wisconsin. Hosted by Joe Sapp, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Center for Employee Ownership (WICEO), each episode examines how employee ownership creates stronger businesses, supports succession planning, preserves local jobs, and builds long-term wealth for employees and communities. Whether you're a business owner planning for the future, a professional advisor, or simply interested in innovative business models, the WICEO Podcast offers practical conversations about the opportunities and impact of employee ownership. — Episode #2: Inside Findorff's ESOP In this episode, host Joe Sapp talks with Jim Yehle, President & CEO of J.H. Findorff & Son Inc., and Blake Head, Managing Director and Group Head of ESOP Advisory Services at BDO Capital Advisors, about one of Wisconsin's most visible employee ownership transitions. Jim takes listeners inside the room where a group of about fifteen individual owners decided to sell all of Findorff, a Madison construction firm founded in 1890, to its own workforce. He and Blake walk through what actually happens in an ESOP transaction, from how the deal is financed to how the purchase price is set and protected on behalf of employees. Jim also shares what it was like roughly eighteen months later, telling around three hundred employees they were now owners, extending the plan to union employees at the superintendent level and above, and navigating what has and hasn't changed on the jobsite since. Blake, whose own firm BDO is one of the largest ESOP-owned companies in the country, brings the advisor's perspective on where these deals succeed, where they go wrong, and what it would take to make employee ownership reachable for more Wisconsin companies. About Jim Yehle: Jim Yehle is President & CEO of J.H. Findorff & Son Inc., a Madison-based general contractor founded in 1890. He joined Findorff in 1999 as a project engineer and became an owner in 2012, before leading the company through its transition to full employee ownership. About Blake Head: Blake Head is Managing Director and Group Head of ESOP Advisory Services at BDO Capital Advisors, where he advises business owners on employee ownership transactions, including ESOP structuring, valuation, and financing. — Visit us at wiceo.org Learn more about J.H. Findorff & Son at findorff.com Learn more about BDO Capital Advisors' ESOP Advisory Services at bdo.com